Along with the increased use of semiconductor devices in portable electronic applications, including high frequency applications such as radios, comes a growing concern for the performance of such devices in environments susceptible to electromagnetic interference (EMI). One of the most typical methods for shielding semiconductor devices from EMI is to include a grounded metal cap or cover surrounding those devices within a system that may be susceptible to EMI interference. While metal caps are certainly effective in shielding EMI, use of such caps have several drawbacks. For instance, the final system layout size may be constrained from further reductions due to the presence of such metal caps. Another drawback is that metal caps can interfere with forced air system cooling. The presence of a metal cap over a semiconductor device prevents air from reaching an internal device which may be dissipating heat within the system. A manufacturing disadvantage associated with using metal caps is that a metal cap is a separate piece part. Preferably the number of piece parts within a manufacturing process is kept to a minimum to avoid unnecessary handling costs and assembly operations. Moreover, the use of a separate metal cap requires an additional processing step of soldering the metal cap to a reference or ground plane.
Accordingly, a need exists for an improvement to the existing use of metal caps or covers over semiconductor devices to shield from EMI. Preferably such an alternative could be implemented at minimal additional manufacturing costs as compared to unshielded devices, without a significant increase in system or device size, and without hindering the thermal management of the system.